urban

CEFRB1

/ˈɜːb(ə)n/

adjective

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    adjective

    Relating to a town or city.

  2. 02

    adjective

    Extra detail

    Having authority or jurisdiction over a city or town.

Examples

  • More and more people are moving to urban areas.

  • Urban life in the nineteenth century is well documented.

At a glance

Sits at B1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
4

Deep Dive

adjective

Extra meanings

  1. Living in a city or town.

  2. Of, pertaining to, characteristic of, or happening or located in, a city or town; of, pertaining to, or characteristic of life in such a place, especially when contrasted with the countryside.

  3. Relating to contemporary African American culture, especially in music.

More examples

In context

  • Bicycles are tools for urban sustainability.

  • Grete wel Vrban, oure helpere in Crist Jhesus, and Stacchen, my derlyng.

  • urban traffic

Antonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

She prefers the quiet countryside to the noisy blank areas of the city.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

adjective

Borrowed from Middle French urbain (“belonging to a city, urban; courteous, refined, urbane”) (modern French urbain), or from its etymon Latin urbānus (“of or belonging to a city, urban; of manners or style: like those of city dwellers: cultivated, polished, refined, sophisticated”) + English -an (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’ forming adjectives). Urbānus is derived from urbs (“city; walled town; Rome”) (further etymology uncertain, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *gʰerdʰ- (“to encircle, enclose; a belt; an enclosure, fence”) or *werbʰ- (“to enclose”)) + -ānus (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’ forming adjectives). For the euphemistic or proscribed term, it was coined by New Yor...